Anyone ever done bank shops for Harland Clarke? I just did 3 bank shops for them. The pay is pretty good. Just wondering what other's experiences have been.

They are one of those companies that tends to shop smaller institutions with fewer branches, so it is hit or miss whether they have anything in your area. They have TWO clients in my area and I am delighted. The reports are very long because they want a lot of narrative detail. They are not on-line reporting so you need to fax, mail or scan and email the reports and collateral. They are all email assigned, so there is no job board to check. But I do find their fees are fair and reasonable for expectations.

The scheduler/editors are wonderful to work with and I don't mind emailing the reports to them.

I did 2 shops for them last month, but can't find anything on their web site regarding their pay schedule. These were pretty high-paying shops, and I'd like to know what turn-around time I can expect.

I am assuming you sent them the invoice with the reports tgb. I generally see a check 2-3 weeks after the shop. When I haven't seen it in a month (very very rare occurrence), I email my scheduler and generally get an 'oops' apology. The check comes usually 2 weeks thereafter. I don't think there are any capitalization issues there, so I accept the 'oops' apology at face value.

I get their emails monthly, however all their jobs are a great distance from me. I would love to work with them, I see they pay well.

As someone who has worked in banking for a LOOONNNNGGG time I have nothing but good things to say about Harland. I do not shop for them (since I work in the marketing department of a financial institution - this would be prohibited) but I use several of their software systems in my day to day work. They are a HUGE and diversified company where mystery shopping is only about 1% of their total business (if that). I would not hesitate to work for them (if I could - or wanted to - do banking shops).

Mickey, thanks...will look into them closer now.

I have just signed up with them and have 2 jobs scheduled. I thought the email said reports could be faxed, mailed in, or done online. Shoot. I will re-check. That means using more ink! Some of them are so ink-draining with black boxes, logos, etc. Is that a word, ink-draining? Google Chrome seems to think so!

All of the jobs I have done for them could be faxed or emailed. I do have to print out the form because there are check boxes and identifiers to fill out by hand. I write the narrative in Word, print it, cut it up and tape it on the report, make a PDF of the whole mess and email it back along with the invoice. I usually include the Word doc file as well so they don't need to have somebody retype the whole thing on their end. It is workable.

The two shops I did for them, I cut-and-pasted their questions into a blank Word document, saved it, and then filled it out as if it were on line. When done I attached the form to an email. The toughest part was getting the format right.

BTW, I sent an email to the scheduler inquiring about their pay scheduled and received a check for the two shops that day (t had been processed the week before)

Love them, the reports are long but once you get the hang of it, they are not difficult. They usually pay twice a month once you get your forms processed.

Do you know if they shopped banks in Eastern Pennsylvania?

Harland is one of (if not the) largest vendors serving the banking community in the USA. It is a pretty safe bet that they have or may have bank clients in all areas of the country.

I've gone to their website but can't see how to register as a mystery shopper. There is a mystery shopping link on the Marketing Services tab of the website but I don't see an application.

Can anyone tell me how to apply?

Thanks,
Kathleen

Had really good luck with them, they did a bunch of credit unions here. They also understood when I needed to reschedule a shop at one of those when there was a shooting at a house three doors down from the branch and the police wouldn't let anyone near. (Extremely rough neighborhood, the branch was in the news yesterday for being held up again.)

kh72, evidently you are on the incorrect site for Harland Clarke. When I pull up the site I see the link for shoppers. I suggest you Google 'Harland Clark mystery shopping'.

Anyone know how to sign with them to became a MYSTERY SHOPPER?

never mind, just find a link, and signed with them...thanks a lot

I also signed up with then last night, but alas they don't seem to have anything in my area. Maybe that will change. One can only hope.

Thanks, someone pm'd me the link

dhickman Wrote:
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> kh72, evidently you are on the incorrect site for
> Harland Clarke. When I pull up the site I see the
> link for shoppers. I suggest you Google 'Harland
> Clark mystery shopping'.

I have great experiences with them. They are the only company that also pays mileage for shops over 20 miles.

No, they are not the only company. There are others that pay mileage.

I've done a few shops for them. Are there any other companies out there who have schedulers as nice as theirs? I have had great experiences with them, they pay well, and they pay fast!

They are the only ones I have come across in the Seattle area.

Anyone know if they have shops in the Northern Indiana area?

If you are comfortable writing narrative, do sign up with them. They get an odd collection of banks and credit unions around the country. I have done several with them that were one or two rounds of shops only, as well as ones that would appear to have 2 rounds a quarter and ones that are monthly. Just yesterday I got an announcement for some shops that are, unfortunately, not in any of my stomping grounds. They are good people to work with. Their reports have no surprises. Unless you are doing a phone shop, there will be 3 areas of observations with a quick y/n list and a blow-by-blow narrative for each area. Scenarios will change from round to round, but the format of the report stays the same.

Thanks for the feedback, Flash. Banking scenarios, and teller/drive thru shops, are my forte...and narrative writing is a piece of cake for me.

I had received their sign up paperwork, but wasn't sure it was worth my time to follow up. (I really hate it that so many companies don't give you a peek at their job boards before you spend your time signing up.) I'll complete the process this weekend.

The reality is that Harland Clarke does not have a job board. There is no way to tell what shops they have where. Their scheduler will email you with locations of shops that may be around you for a particular client. If there is something of interest, you email back that interest. If you are assigned work, the first time you are likely to need to listen in on a phone training session. You will be asked to call in before you do your first shop just to make sure you understand the scenario. There is always somebody there to go over it with you. If there are multiple visits to a location you will be asked to call in and see if the other shopper has been there yet and if they have, you will be given name and description of the bank folks so you don't shop the same folks (not always possible to not shop the same ones if it is a small location, so you do the best you can to avoid them and know that if you are stuck for it, they will still honor the shop. Many is the time that I have ducked out of the head of the line to 'work on my deposit slip' when Louise will be the next teller available and she has already been shopped.) On multiple visit locations where you are the first shopper, you call in immediately to let them know who you shopped and their description so the next shopper knows who to avoid. (Moral of the story, if there are multiple shoppers for a location, go do the job the first day! Then the other shopper has to do the dodge the teller/platform person with a credible reason.)

Reports are not done on line but rather faxed or emailed in. They recently started working with a Word format form available on some shops that you can return as a Word doc. It is still flaky for formatting, but beats the stuffing out of printing a pdf, hand filling the y/n and location info, then doing Word for the narrative and cutting and taping the narrative printout onto a pdf form to scan and submit or fax. There is noise about some day having on line reporting, but don't hold your breath. The Word doc at least cuts out some of the steps.

But a nicer batch of folks to work with is hard to find in this business. They know how to ask a question about your report that has no tinge of the accusative. And they seem to enjoy working WITH you.

Okay, helpful things to know. I especially like the tip about being the first to do the shop...makes great sense.